Question about my dad's IPDSL install

My dad currently has two telephone lines with dial-tone at his place, one is just a line designated for inbound calls from his job, the other is his home phone number along with his lineshare DSL.

He ordered 12mbps IPDSL service on an upgrade promo for his DSL. It was explained to him this would still be lineshare service, and the nature of change in service was describe to him that his broadband would now be fiber-based up to a "node" (which he extrapolated as possibly one of the AT&T boxes you see at various places around his area along the road or whatever), and then would continue to his residence on copper.

Based on that, he and I had a few quetsions about the technology itself:

1) How are his actual telephone conversations now brought to him? Was the node placed at a junction between two (or more) lengths of copper bringing service to a particular neighborhood (or maybe several lengths of copper serving several neighborhoods?), and the data connection switched to lineshare service via moving it off the fiber and to the respective copper that takes it on to the subscriber?

2) If 1 isn't the case, I can't imagine they installed this node and then installed an entirely new copper infrastructure to the area, but maybe so?

3) If 1 and 2 aren't the case, and since obviously no data is coming from the CO, would it mean that his voice conversations now come to the node through the fiber, and then are placed to the copper?

4) In regards to the line without the lineshare, does anything change with regards to how that service reaches his house? Or does it just come from the CO in the same manner it always did?

5) Unrelated to the voice, how does the length of copper from the node to the subscriber affect speed in comparison to regular DSL? If you have a maximum speed of 6mb available, is the loop length the same as 6mb DSL, or does the fact that the data is coming through fiber for part of the transmission somehow result in higher theoretical speeds at any give length?

I'm aware the condition of the copper itself and damage or wear affect the signal quality, but I was more curious about how distances factor in?

1) If this is lineshare service, the voice circuit is still copper. A common topology is to run fiber optic to a remote terminal, than splice in to a Serving Area Interface. From the SAI an F2 binder (multiple pairs of copper) distribute the service to the neighborhood.I believe the case you describe involves an F1 span of copper from the CO to the SAI to carry the voice, while fiber to the RT carries the DSL. Most RTs I have seen are within a few tens of feet of the associated SAI; which is the distance of the copper span from the RT to the SAI (for the fiber service). Of course, there is also the distance of the copper span from the SAI to the premises.

2) I have seen a lot of F2 spans replaced in San Jose, California. YMMV.

3) Only if he has U-verse voice; which may still be the case. I expect that determines what CPE ("Customer Premises Equipment") you get.

4) The line without the DSL is like the same as before the install.

5) In a sense, "DSL is DSL". The charts I have seen comparing ADSL (legacy AT&T service), ADSL2, ADSL2+ (AT&T IPDSL), and VDSL (AT&T IPDSL) show the speeds converge at around 7,500 feet; all DSL at 7,500 feet, and beyond, is the same speed. As the distance gets shorter, ADSL2/ADSL2+/VDSL diverge showing higher speeds at any given distance than ADSL.

Because some of your questions are U-verse specific, I'll ask the mods to move the topic. The folks in the AT&T U-verse forum know U-verse better than I do.--Norman~Oh Lord, why have you come~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

Since you are in MO, most IPDSL does not come from a remote terminal like tv uverse. Most IPDSL is coming from different equipment in the Central office and is still coming down the same copper lines the dsl was coming down. The voice part is still coming down the same copper with the data as well

Did they make him pay for a new modem and did it say which kind of modem it was?

He ordered 12mbps IPDSL service on an upgrade promo for his DSL. It was explained to him this would still be lineshare service, and the nature of change in service was describe to him that his broadband would now be fiber-based up to a "node" (which he extrapolated as possibly one of the AT&T boxes you see at various places around his area along the road or whatever), and then would continue to his residence on copper.

From the above statement it appears the IPDSL will be VDSL from a VRAD (the node that can provide Uverse HSIA, IPTV, VOIP or all three and is fiber fed from a Central Office) in most cases the VRAD is much closer to the customer allowing for higher DSL speeds. There will be a cross connect made from the copper where the dial tone appears in the SAI to the "in" port of the line card in the VRAD combining d/t and DSL on the same cable pair to the house.

There is an apparent malfunction in communication between myself and my dad. Probably because his mobile phone service is AT&T, and his landline service is centurylink, his 62 year-old brain confuses what he practically has defined in his brain as two telephones he's gotta a pay for (He just upgraded to a smart-phone a few months back). He also made no mention of television, which I thought was relevant, but really isn't because he's had directv since 1993 and used the original equipment non-stop until he got an HDTV a few years ago.

Aggravatingly, because of the way he approaches things like simplifying television operation for my mom (disabled) so that she doesn't have to understand why broadcast channels locally have unrelated channel numbers with DirecTV - basically, his receiver has a 65ft HDMI cable going to his television, but his television input is always set to coax in a "use TV remote to go to channel 38, then use directv remote to channel surf". Complete with printed instructions on each.

Returning from tangent

Where I flopped was forgetting who his wireline carrier is, because the last time I even looked was 2010 or 2011. Called him back today and asked again, it is Centurylink, the speed offered was 50mbps (this sounds wrong, but I haven't looked at their website), and required shipping a new router only.

My previous statement about the hardware down the street is still correct, but I guess it amounts to different carrier providing same stuff, and I suppose centurylink arguably got necessary wired infrastructure when they pickled up sprint's wireline stuff.

I still have no clue if the service has IPTV, but I'm too lazy to check

I still have no clue if the service has IPTV, but I'm too lazy to check

CenturyLink does have IPTV service; it is called, "Prism". AFAIK, they do not have IPDSL. My Mother had CL, briefly, in Corvallis. It was VDSL with ATM and PPPoE. I failed to document the setup while I was there, and my sister shut down the account a couple of weeks later, after Mom died.

CenturyLink apparently has a lot of Internet-only VDSL; not so much IPTV.--Norman~Oh Lord, why have you come~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

There is an apparent malfunction in communication between myself and my dad. Probably because his mobile phone service is AT&T, and his landline service is centurylink, his 62 year-old brain confuses what he practically has defined in his brain as two telephones he's gotta a pay for (He just upgraded to a smart-phone a few months back).

Why would seeing two telephones (mobile and landline) he's gotta a pay for be inaccurate? Or are you saying he views the internet connection as a third phone to pay for?